Man-God of the Apes

The greatest film noir ever made. Heston plays a Mexican cop named Vargas. Janet Leigh plays his new wife, Susie. Orson Welles plays the fat, corrupt border town cop Hank Quinlan. The action begins with a bombing on the border. Vargas is a witness and therefore involved. He catches Quinlan planting evidence in the case and the two set out to destroy each other. Quinlan hired local thugs to kidnap Vargas’s wife, while Vargas systematically investigates Quinlan’s arrest record. This grimy, oddball movie revels in the deteriorating border atmosphere; off-kilter shots and an exploitative atmosphere provide the boozy ambience. This fabulous little gem works despite Heston’s feeble attempts to sound Mexican. But give Heston his due: he’s the reason Welles got the job directing this fascinating tawdry thriller.

Heston plays the title role in this equal parts gentle, surreal, and violent western about one of the last of the hard men, an illiterate seasonal cowpoke who lives a solitary life. Penny, aging and atavistic, survives through routines, cycles of seasonal work. When he goes to his cabin in the winter, he finds a young woman and her son living in his quarters. Unable to kick them out to certain death in the cold, he allows them to stay until spring. Forced to cohabitate with a woman and child, Penny begins to recognize his immense loneliness. Meanwhile, a psychotic family (led by patriarch Donald Pleasants) hunts Penny and his friends, seeking revenge. The screenplay juggles a lot, but the various elements work. And Heston’s acting is superb. He is tough, stupid, caring, dutiful. Heston's favorite film of his career and one of the best westerns every made.

The first of Heston’s trilogy of dystopian science fiction films and probably the best. Rod Serling (of Twilight Zone fame) scripted this film about three astronaughts sent into space to find a habitable planet. The men know that when they return, thanks to faster than the speed of light space travel, everyone they knew will be dead, they will be forgotten, and society will be irrevocably changed. But their ship malfunctions and they crash land on a remote, barren planet. Heston plays the cynical Taylor, happy that humanity has probably died out. But on this new planet he discovers a society even more barbaric and primitive than man’s: a world run by apes. Held in thrall by bizarre prophesies and a strangling religion, the stratified society of orangutans (the rulers), gorillas (the soldiers), and chimpanzees (the scientists and farmers) has a peculiar relationship to man. In this new world, man is mute, and thought of as cattle. Serling draws out (perhaps too much) the parallels between this new world and slavery in our own, but the cosmic horror of the situation, and the decency of some of the apes, shines through. The bizarre sequel gets credit for moving past the original conceit; in it Taylor comes across a cult of super-powered humans who worship an atomic warhead.

Yes, this William Wyler classic has some dated scenes, some overwrought acting, and some cheesy pieces. But its stunning visuals, intriguing storyline, and amazing action sequences stand the test of time. Heston stars as Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish noble who wants independence for his people but doesn’t want to rock the boat to get it. His best friend is Messala, a Roman officer. Meanwhile, in a tiny province of the Roman Empire, the savior of the human race grows up. Ben Hur is betrayed by Messala and sold into slavery. And he spends the rest of the film looking for revenge. As the film begins, Heston isn’t very believable as a Jewish prince. But he grows into the role. By the film’s climax, he’s buried in the role. The second collaboration between Wyler and Heston, this film sets the standard for epics.

Heston plays the title character in this early Sam Peckinpah cavalry film about an ambitious Union cavalry man and his expedition into Mexico to avenge the deaths of frontier settlers. The film is violent, bold and majestic. Dundee is a turning point for Peckinpah. Here he begins to recognize the beauty in violence, the poetry in bloodshed. Every Peckinpah film is gorgeous, and even though it would be four years before his magnum opus, The Wild Bunch, Peckinpah had the moviemaking chops from day one. Heston’s Dundee is a ambiguous character—balanced by his drive, anger, and an undercurrent of black humor.

This gambling noir follows a group of friends who allow a vulnerable out of towner join their regular poker game, to disastrous results. Heston plays Danny Haley, a petty criminal who has lost his bookie operation. He invites a sucker to join his regular game; Haley and his friends take him for five large. But then the stranger kills himself, as the money he lost wasn’t his. Haley and his friends (including Jack Webb and Ed Begley, Sr.) think little of it, until a strange hulking presence begins killing them, one by one. This great 1950 crime drama follows Haley as he begins to turn his life around, while death stalks him at every turn. I saw this film when I was fourteen; it has haunted my imagination ever since.

Saturday Night Live ruined the end line of this dystopian thriller, amalgamating this film with its disturbing prophecies of overpopulation with a stupid skit. Soylent Green is therefore a common punch line. Which is a pity. For the film has some great moments, both with Edgar G. Robinson (in his last performance before he died) and with Heston as Thorn, a police detective making his way through the murky morality of a starving, overpopulated, and run-down New York. With great sets, fun costumes, and some fantastic set pieces, Soylent Green portrays a society, having outgrown its environment, strangling on its own fundamental needs. Heston brings an exhausted cynicism to the role.

The second and weakest of his science fiction trilogy, The Omega Man is a remake of the fine 1964 Vincent Price film, The Last Man on Earth. (Both are adapted from the book, I am Legend, now in a new movie incarnation starring Will Smith, in post-production right now.) A strange virus has corrupted humanity, killing most and mutating the survivors into vampires. The cities have emptied out. Only one man survives, Neville, a scientist working on a vaccine for a peculiar biological weapon. During the day he forages for the fineries of his dead civilization, while also killing sleeping vampires. At nights he turns up the music and tries to survive. The film looks great, moody and strange. The problem? The music. The strange bubbly score never matches up to what is happening on screen. The result is an alienating, and at times comical viewing experience. Tis a shame: this one has some fantastic little moments. Heston’s acting is hokey, befitting a pop apocalypse.

William Wyler directed Heston in this panoramic western about landscapes and the tiny machinations of the men trying to tame it. Two large landowners argue over disputed lands for watering and grazing their cattle. Gregory Peck arrives to marry his fiance. Heston plays Peck’s antagonist, as a ranch foreman who finds Peck’s values and lifestyle alien and deplorable. This long movie has outstanding set pieces, including a fist fight at the end shot from a mile away. The two figures punch and kick against the dusty backdrop that swallows them whole. Long but excellent.

This Nicholas Ray period film follows a group of internationals during the Boxer Rebellion in China. The history is deplorable, simplifying a complex situation and in many ways placing sympathy with the wrong side. (When does Hollywood ever really get history right?) But the visuals are fantastic, as are the battle sequences in the end. Ray didn’t make any bad movies. Although some of his choices are dated or strange, he had an eccentric, controlled visual style that invited jealousy and awe in the later auteurs. Parts are a little slow, yes. There’s a subtle ethnocentricism underlying the film (with undertones of white man’s burden). But overall an exciting little movie.

This Anthony Mann sword and shield epic is a mixed bag, but still worth watching. This lengthy and complex story of the Spanish mercenary follows El Cid from his various alliances with Christian and Moorish princedoms until he leads the charge to rid Spain of the Moorish invaders.. Mann, like Ray, had complete control over his visuals, schooled in the low budget camera work of his early crime caper films. But the historical epic is by its nature an unwieldy phenomenon—the genre chewed up every director who tried. Still, Heston provides a passable El Cid, Spain’s greatest warrior, and an average Mann film is better than a great film by most. Co-starring the ineffable Sophia Loren.